Royal Inland Hospital eyes next phase of development

KAMLOOPS – With construction still in the works on the clinical services building the hospital is already looking towards the next phase of development, a patient care tower.

It will still be about one year before the nearly $80-million clinical services building opens at Royal Inland Hospital but planning will soon be underway for the patient care tower. Both projects were identified in the master site plan completed for the hospital in 2011 along with several other items.

"Redevelopment at Royal Inland Hospital is among Interior Health's top priorities," Interior Health board chair Erwin Malzer says in a release. "We're about to embark on the next phase of redevelopment with a new patient care tower, which will bring an exciting new chapter to health care in the Thompson Cariboo Shuswap region."

The planning phase for the patient care tower will create the business plan and then after provincial approval construction can begin.

Construction of the clinical services building began last spring. The building will offer outpatient services such as laboratory, community respiratory therapy, pre-surgical screening, cardiology, neurodiagnostics, IV therapy and the vascular improvement program.

The Clinical Services Building will also include clinical education program space, the UBC medical school, and improved site access with additional parkade stalls and a pedestrian bridge link connecting the new building to the main hospital.

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